People's AI Consultation Launches as Ottawa Drafts First National Strategy
A coalition of human rights groups, unions, academics, and advocates has launched a "people's consultation" on artificial intelligence. Their goal: gather public input that will be delivered to the federal government as it develops Canada's first national AI strategy.
The consultation runs until March 15 and submissions will be posted publicly online before being shared with officials. This sits alongside ongoing federal work led by AI Minister Evan Solomon and an independent task force examining AI's growing use across sectors.
Why This Matters for Government Teams
Over 160 signatories argue the federal task force leans heavily toward the tech industry and AI proponents. They also say last October's 30-day public consultation was too rushed to reflect the range of impacts people are seeing on the ground.
For public servants, this is a signal to broaden inputs, stress-test assumptions, and pressure-test policy through labor, environmental, Indigenous, and human rights lenses. That reduces blind spots before rules harden.
Key Critiques From Civil Society
Technology and human rights lawyer Cynthia Khoo said the October process felt like a "mad 30-day rush," and that many NGOs likely to be most affected were left at a disadvantage next to large technology companies. "It didn't really seem like a fair fight," she said, noting calls for regulatory guardrails.
Aislin Jackson, policy staff counsel at the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said the federal task force lacked labor and environmental expertise. Generative tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini "will touch almost every area of people's lives," often in ways that aren't obvious without deeper review.
Priority Risks Highlighted
- Hiring and screening: AI systems can reproduce bias if trained on skewed data. Jackson warns private employers may introduce discrimination through poorly specified models.
- Labor and jobs: Quick deployment of generative tools can reassign tasks or reshape roles long before governance catches up, creating uneven impacts on workers.
- Environmental costs: Prioritizing data centres can strain local grids and raise energy costs for nearby communities, as Khoo noted.
- Indigenous rights: Calls are growing to consider Indigenous sovereignty and data governance alongside talk of "Canadian digital sovereignty."
Federal Response So Far
A spokesperson for the AI and Digital Innovation Ministry said the public questionnaire was one channel among many. Officials are also gathering input through the independent task force, targeted roundtables, informal stakeholder discussions, and ongoing engagement with civil society, researchers, labor, industry, and other partners.
Work on the national AI strategy is continuing, and all input is being reviewed by officials.
What Public Servants Can Do Now
- Encourage participation: Share the people's consultation with colleagues and stakeholder networks. More diverse submissions help policy land well.
- Audit current use: Inventory AI tools in your unit. Document purpose, datasets, model source, evaluation methods, human oversight, and decision rights.
- Procurement guardrails: Require bias testing, human rights impact assessments, incident reporting, and explainability commitments in vendor contracts.
- Labor coordination: Involve HR and unions early. Map task changes, skill gaps, and retraining needs before deployment.
- Environmental checks: For data-intensive projects, work with energy and sustainability teams on grid impacts, energy efficiency, and heat/water use.
- Indigenous engagement: Where systems touch Indigenous data, services, or lands, plan early engagement and respect Indigenous data governance principles.
- Public transparency: Maintain and publish an internal registry of AI-assisted systems that inform services or decisions affecting people.
- Risk testing before scale: Pilot small, monitor real-world errors, and include affected communities in evaluation. Pause or adjust if harms appear.
Timeline and Participation
The people's consultation is open now and runs through March 15. Submissions will be published online and provided to the federal government for consideration in the national strategy.
For broader context on emerging federal frameworks and proposals, see the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act overview from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada: AIDA (proposed). For civil society research on surveillance and AI governance, see the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto: Citizen Lab.
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